Ernesto Halffter

Who was Ernesto Halffter?

Ernesto Halffter Escriche was a Spanish composer and conductor. He was the brother of Rodolfo Halffter.

Halffter was part of the Grupo de los Ocho, which formed a sub-set of the Generation of '27.

At the age of thirteen, he started to compose music for the piano. A critic sent a copy of Halffter's string trio "Homenajes" to Manuel de Falla, beginning a long relationship that included composition lessons from Falla. His Sinfonietta is one of his earliest and best works; it shows the influence of Domenico Scarlatti. Later, he became more nationalistic with "Rapsodia portuguesa for piano and orchestra", composed in 1938, during the Spanish Civil War. In 1934 he became director and conductor of the Seville Conservatory of Music but, married to the Portuguese pianist Alice Câmara Santos, chose to live in Lisbon during this period up to 1954. His only pupil was the Finnish composer Ann-Elise Hannikainen, who also became his life-companion during his later life.

When Falla died in 1946, he left his opera Atlántida incomplete; Ernesto Halffter was asked to complete it. It premiered in 1962, but Halffter later revised it. The second version was completed in 1976.